


Night in the Wilderness

by Makco



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-05 16:32:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15867453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Makco/pseuds/Makco
Summary: Special thanks to Catto and Soy from the Stardew Valley discord server for their help and support. You rock! <3





	Night in the Wilderness

-”Uhmm, honey, I have had an idea that has been running in my head for a long time.” Penny was just laying on the bed next to her husband, pensive, looking into his eyes. Makco had just been woken up by her and rubbed his eyes to try and shake his drowsiness away.  
-”Hmm yes, dear, what idea is that?” Makco covered his mouth to yawn then moved to lay on his side and have a better look of his wife while she removed her hair rollers that kept her curls together even while she slept.  
-”You probably know by now that Maru has a very strained relationship with her brother, and I thought that perhaps we could invite both for dinner and perhaps they could bond a bit. She always talks me about her and her brother and I feel a bit bad about both of them.” Makco yawned again, not seeming to be able to shake the sleepiness away just yet but nonetheless forcing himself to get up and change his sleeping clothes for his regular ones while Penny got up and did the same while Makco looked at her with a smile.  
-”You know, I love your skirt but one of this days I’ll convince you to use pants, I bet you would look stunning in them!” Penny couldn’t help but chuckle and then stuck out her tongue at him.  
-”Good luck trying to convince me to use pants, the last time I tried them on they didn’t fit so well. I guess having children changed me a bit in that regard.” She put her arms on her sides and patted her hips, which were now wider than before when she didn’t had any children yet, then wiggled them a bit, then noticed the look her husband was giving to her and furrowed her brow a bit, though she couldn’t help but giggle.  
-”I don’t quite like the look you’re giving to me, mister! I have to ask you to desist!” Penny covered her mouth and giggled a bit, and Makco grinned at her and then chuckled, amused at her words.  
-”Oh come on, I know you love the looks I give you, miss! But back to the matter at hand, what plan do you have to bring those two together? Invite them over to have dinner? You certainly don’t know Sebastian too much, I’m pretty sure he has a sheet with the exact amount of time in the sunlight he’s willing to spend per week and a disturbance in his schedule could probably be too much for him to handle.” Penny couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his words, holding her tummy when it was too much to handle, his eyes filled with tears of laughter.  
-”Oh dear, how do you even come up with such things? ‘Sunlight schedule’?” She laughed out loud a bit more then stopped herself before it became painful again, her husband beaming because he loved hearing her laughing so much.  
-”And yes, invite them over for dinner. Maru should be arriving soon so we can know what she thinks about the idea and then if she agrees it’s up to you to convince Sebastian to come to the dinner. It will be a nice bonding experience for those two I’m sure, and I’m also sure you’ll be able to convince him. Maru told me the way he talks about you and it seems he really respects you, so if anyone in this town is able to convince him to do something like this that is probably you.” Makco smiled wide at his wife. She always found the right words to say and even though it never crossed his head to say no to her the way she explained her idea made it sound like there was no way it would fail. He moved his face closer to hers and rubbed his nose against hers while playing with her curls by running his hands through them.  
-”That’s actually a great idea, my love. If you think I can do it then I’m convinced, and I’ll try my hardest to make it happen.” He moved back a bit and looked at her in the eyes while his hands moved all the way from her curls to her hips. Penny gasped in surprise and blushed but kept her green eyes fixated on his, but the moment was interrupted by a knocking on the door.  
-”Ugh, I swear, Maru probably installed cameras and microphones in this house, she always arrives in the worst moments!” The knocking became more insistent and Maru’s voice could be heard even with her still outside.  
-”I did NOT do such thing! You can be easily heard from the outside, silly! I can come back later if I interrupted your kissy touchy time!” Maru chuckled while Penny opened the door to let her in and hugged her when she entered the house while Makco went to the kitchen to make everyone breakfast, and Maru sat down at the table while Penny brought the children from their room so they could all have breakfast together. Penny was holding both toddlers from their hands and she brought them in front of Maru.  
-”So kids, don’t you have something to say to Maru that we taught you?” The kids looked up at their mom first, then at Maru and they both smiled.  
-”I l-love you, aunt Maru!” Both Leticia and Oliver said with their sweet voices while waving with their free hands. Maru blushed hard and covered her mouth with both hands, and dropped from her chair on her knees with her arms open and Penny let the children go so they could hug Maru.  
-”Awwwwww! I’m going to drop dead right here from cuteness overload! Aunt Maru loves you too, little angels.” Maru hugged both children while they played with her copper colored hair.  
-”So smart already and so cute too, just like mom and dad! We’re going to have a lot of fun today, I’ve brough other of my machines we can take apart and reassemble!”  
-”But for now, mom and dad and aunt Maru and the little angels need to have their breakfast so they have all the energy to tackle the day. To the table now!” Makco said, and everyone quickly sat on their chairs, with Maru and Penny helping a child each to sit on their chairs while Makco gave a plate to each person gathered there with fried eggs, cheese, toasts, milk, freshly squeezed fruit juice, jam, sliced fruit, pancakes, hashbrowns; there was so much food that probably nobody would need to have lunch if they ate their share, and they all did, they were all stuffed after they finished, and Makco grabbed the dishes and washed them while Penny and Maru played with the children for a bit.  
-”Okay my dear, are you ready to go?” Asked Makco, donning his straw hat and putting his sword and his pickaxe along with a few supplies in his backpack and the backpack on his back and looking at his wife.  
-”Oh, oh, one moment!” Penny stood up and rushed to her room, then came back to the kitchen while putting on her mermaid’s pendant, the shell polished and the blue color vibrant. She liked her amulet so much she went so far as to buy a special product to polish it as soon as its blue color dulled a bit.  
-”There, I’m ready now!” Penny grinned wide and tapped her pendant, and Maru couldn’t help but chuckle at it all.   
-”Hehe, you surely love to show off that thing, don’t you? You polish it so much it’s a miracle it didn’t disintegrated yet!”  
-”Uhh Penny, aren’t you forgetting something? Some idea you talked me about this morning?” Makco looked at his wife and pointed at Maru with a thumb. Penny gasped and nodded.   
-”Oh, oh, yes, I almost forgot! Maru, what do you think if we invited you and Sebastian to have dinner with us tonight? Maybe it will help you two get along better?” Maru smiled and shook his head, then sighed.  
-”Penny, you’re such a sweetheart, but I doubt you could convince my brother to leave his room, and much less to leave his room to have dinner in someone else’s house, and with me there.” Penny winked and gave her a grin, then pointed at her husband.   
-”You don’t have to worry about me trying to convince your brother, Makco is the one going to do it! He’ll convince your brother, no doubt!” Makco blushed a bit and walked to his wife to give her a tender hug and a kiss.  
-”My Penny is such a wonderful and sweet woman, isn’t she? She has total faith in me even though I’m pretty sure I’ll fail!” Penny giggled and hugged her husband while Maru winked at Makco.  
-”Heh, yep, you lucky bastard, I was going to marry her then you came along and stole her from me! I’ll have my payback!” Makco chuckled out loud then stuck out his tongue to Maru while still holding his beaming wife.  
-”Pff Maru please, you couldn’t handle all this woman, I saved you two a big deal of frustration!” Penny blushed and pressed her face on his chest while Maru laughed out loud, amused by both Makco’s response and Penny’s blushing.  
-”Hahaha, you wish, farmer boy! Alright, stop talking nonsense and leave my house now, you two have stuff to do!” Makco frowned and tried to look all outraged, even though he was having so much fun with the conversation.  
-”Excuse me? Your house? We’ll leave now, but only because we’re very busy people and not because you’re kicking us from our own house! Let’s go Penny!” Makco raised his nose and walked to the door with Penny following behind, both trying not to crack into laughter.  
-”Yes Maru, how could you do this to us! Rude!” Penny also raised her nose, but then got into a fit of giggles which made Maru grin and had to be pulled outside by Makco since it was getting really late for them.  
-”Have a great day, you two!” Maru waved at the two of them from inside the house while the kids did the same, and Makco and Penny also waved from outside.  
-”Later Maru! You brother is coming over for dinner, dead or alive, I swear! Well, maybe not dead, but he’ll be coming.” Said Makco before closing the door behind him, though he remembered something and opened it again.   
-”Oh Maru, I almost forgot, Haley asked me if she could come to the farm so she could take pics of my crops and farm animals so don’t be alarmed if you see her around the field.” Maru raised an eyebrow in disbelief.  
-”Haley, here, in a farm full of dirt? I can’t believe what I’m hearing. But yes, don’t worry, I’ll let her roam around, and I won’t pick on her too much.” Maru made an awful attempt of an evil laugh which caused Makco to roll his eyes and close the door again. Once they were both outside the house and on the porch the farming couple had a sweet kiss and both parted ways, Penny going to the library to tutor Jas and Vincent while Makco went the opposite way and took the path that ran behind his farm to the mountains, checking on the lamp posts he installed along the way to see if any needed maintenance though it seemed that Maru couldn’t resist doing the maintenance herself since he noticed some of them had different batteries than the ones he used and some of the glass panes of several lamp posts were changed to new ones, and it seemed that she replaced the lightbulbs whenever they stopped working since he doesn’t remember having to replace any since Maru started coming to the farmhouse regularly. 

 

Makco kept checking the lamp posts along the way until he finally made it to the mountains, and headed to the carpenter’s shop and entered it without knocking on the door. Inside the shop he found Robin, hammering some nails to finish making a very sturdy looking chair, and once she noticed Makco was there she stopped working and waved at him with her usual cheerful smile.  
-”Hey Makco, what a nice surprise! Always nice to have you visit!” Robin went to Makco and gave him a hug since she refused to shake his hand, or to do any other formal way of greeting at all.  
-”So, what brings you here? Have you come to buy more mats or furniture? Or came here to visit? I don’t mind either, you’re always good company!” Robin went back to her workbench to examine the chair she just made, checking if it was sturdy enough for her standards.  
-”I do enjoy keeping you company, though this time I’ve come to talk to Sebastian. Is he in his room?” Robin’s smile only widened and he nodded while pointing to the entrance of the basement.  
-”Yes, go right ahead, he’s probably awake and on his computer right now.” Makco nodded and went to one of the chairs in the shop to leave his backpack there, and from it he took a large peach and handed it to Robin who looked at it in awe.  
-”Thank you! Here’s one of my best peaches for the second best mom in the valley! Sorry but Penny took the first place from you!” Robin chuckled out loud and shook her head.  
-”Haha, it’s okay, I don’t mind stepping down for someone worthy! Thank you for the peach, it looks delicious.” Makco moved to stand in front of Sebastian’s door and knocked on it a few times, and after hearing him saying he could come in he entered and closed the door behind him.  
-”Hello Makco. It’s nice to see you, though you caught me a little busy today.” Sebastian spoke but didn’t even took his eyes from his computer screen. It was about the kind of reception he expected, so instead of feeling discouraged he walked to his side. Convincing him was not going to be easy.  
-”Hello Sebastian. I know you hate long winded conversations so I’ll cut to the chase. My wife and I would like to invite Maru and you to have dinner at our place tonight.” This time Sebastian did took his eyes off the computer screen though his expression was not a friendly one.  
-”Dinner with Maru, in your place? Not going to happen, sorry.” He turned back to his computer screen and kept on writing stuff with his keyboard, acting as if Makco was already gone from his room. The farmer sighed and frowned and kept on insisting.  
-”Sebastian, come on. We are worried about you and your sister’s relationship. She’s a nice gal and I can tell it affects her having her big brother being so distant with her.” Sebastian again took his eyes away from the screen to look at him, and he looked quite angry now.  
-”HALF-sister. And if this is your plan to bring the family together, it is a pretty horrible one. You can go now, I’m extremely busy.” His nostrils flared when he once more turned to face his screen. 'No, it was my wife’s plan, and I’ll be damned if I let it fail.' Makco thought to himself. He sighed out deeper and more annoyed than last time and moved even closer to Sebastian.  
-”Alright, you forced my hand. Move a bit, lemme use the computer for a moment.” Sebastian looked curiously at him and moved away on the small wheels of his computer chair, and Makco opened a tab on the browser and wrote a bit on the keyboard, then pointed at the screen. Sebastian opened his eyes wide and gasped, then looked up at Makco.  
-”You can’t possibly be serious.” His eyes returned to the screen, looking at what Makco was showing him, then back at him, looking more and more suspicious each moment.  
-”I’m absolutely serious. So, dinner with Maru and us tonight?” Makco gave Sebastian a glare that pretty much indicated that he wasn’t going to take a no for an answer. Sebastian smiled slightly and shook his head.  
-”Wow, you must really want this. I’ll consider it.” Makco knew that was his way of saying yes so he moved closer to the computer again finish what he started doing there and closed that browser tab.  
-”Hope you are aware there’s not backing down from this. If you don’t go to the dinner I’m coming after you and I’ll drag you there. At least I didn’t had to use my sword or my pickaxe, I brought them in for nothing!” Makco snickered and headed to the door to leave the room, grabbing his backpack and waving at Robin.  
-”Hey Robin, mind if I take your children for dinner at my place tonight?” Robin raised an eyebrow and looked at him curiously.  
-”Hmm, first your wife takes my first place for best mom and now you try to take my children from me too? Fine, have fun!” Robin giggled and waved at the farmer and he waved back after putting on his backpack, and left shortly after. 

 

His plan for the day was to go to the mines to get more gemstones but he was so anxious to give his wife the good news he headed to the town instead, running to the library and entering the building. He approached Penny, Jas, and Vincent and waved at them, and they waved back.  
-”Hello farmer Makco!” Both Jas and Vincent greeted him, smiling wide like they always did when the farmer visited them in the library.  
-”Hello Jas, hello Vincent! And hello dear.” Makco looked at his wife with a big smile and raised a thumb, and she understood immediately what he meant and raised a thumb in response too.  
-”The plan worked, honey! Now I better go to buy some supplies at Pierre’s for the dinner, see you later at home.” Makco was beaming when he gave his wife the good news.  
-”See you later, honey!” Penny blew a kiss to him and winked and Makco responded in kind before leaving the library and heading to Pierre’s to buy the provisions for the dinner. He entered the store, started to take stuff from the shelves and pile them up on Pierre’s counter, so much stuff was piled up there that Pierre couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, thinking it was some kind of joke. In the meantime Abigail came out of her room and noticed the pile of groceries and was very curious about why Makco would need so much food.  
-”Hello there, farmer boy! You surely are piling up those groceries! Throwing a party and not inviting me, huh?” Abby smirked and winked at Makco and he took his eyes from the groceries just a moment to address her.  
-”Yep, pretty much. It’s the ‘Abby-free day’ us villagers celebrate from time to time and we throw huge parties.” Makco stuck out his tongue at her and started to put the groceries inside his backpack after paying Pierre. Abigail gasped and furrowed her brow and made a rude gesture with her hand at Makco.  
-”Not cool! Seriously, are you throwing a party and not inviting me? That would be incredibly rude!” Abigail’s expression was turning very angry and when Makco took a quick look at Pierre’s face he saw him rolling his eyes.  
-”Look, it’s just a dinner with some special guests! No party, no celebration, no ‘Abby-free day’, none of that. Seriously Abby, I can't invite you this time. I promise we'll make a dinner just for you another time.” Makco put on his backpack full of groceries and headed to the door. Abby followed him outside and frowned some more at him.  
-”But... you never invited me to your place, it’s been ages since I’ve explored there! In fact, I haven’t been there since you moved in!” Abby crossed her arms, standing in front of the farmer and blocking his way.  
-”Look Abby, I'm running a bit late already and I need to go home to prepare this. I can't invite you tonight, and I'm sorry, but you can trust me about inviting you to have dinner with us another night.” Abby pouted while Makco walked around her and to the farm, then sighed and entered her house again when she lost sight of the farmer.

 

When Makco arrived to the house he was greeted by the sight of Maru and the children, sitting on the couch, having milk and cookies and watching TV, and the three of them turned around to wave at him.  
-”And I’m paying you for this? I feel like you’re stealing from me, Maru!” Maru stuck out her tongue at him and stood up, eyeing the backpack full of supplies as it made a loud noise when hitting the table and he began to take them out one by one and to the kitchen.  
-”Yep, they are little cute devils so in fact I feel like I’m the one that’s being stolen from here. Hope you’re ready to give me a raise!” Maru chuckled and started to help Makco get all the groceries to the kitchen.  
-”I’m going to give you a raise, ok. Such a raise in fact, you’ll end up on the roof.” When the groceries were all out of the backpack and in the kitchen Makco took out the pickaxe and sword from it and stored them away in their chest. So much for the mining and gemstone finding but today was an extraordinary day.  
-”Yeah, we’ll see about that. Oh, and Haley came over to the farmhouse today earlier and she took pictures of the children too. She called them ‘the cutiest of pies’, whatever that means, but the worst part is, I had to feed her too! My contract is very clear, I only have to take care of two children.” Makco furrowed his brow and shook his head, then held his hand in front of him, his palm facing him and acting as if he were reading from a paper he held.  
-”Well, hate to give you the bad news, but you contract here clearly says that you’re ‘required to be able to take care of up to four children’” He made a gesture as if he were folding the invisible piece of paper and putting it in his pocket.  
-”Isn’t that what I do every day I come here, huh?” Maru winked at him and he winked back, then she returned to the couch with the children while Makco began to prepare the prodigious amount of food he had planned to make for the dinner.  
-”So, preparing so much food means you were able to somehow convince my brother to leave his mancave and come over. How? You promised him new comic books? A new bike? A brand new computer?” Makco sighed and grimaced.  
-”I don’t want to talk about it. Penny will kill me when she finds out what I had to do. I’ll have to tell her tonight after I soften her up a little and it’s going to require a lot of work, that’s for sure.” Makco turned his head to look at her and raised an eyebrow when he noticed the devious grin Maru had on her face.  
-”Ohh, spilling the beans on the juicy details, huh? Go ahead, don’t stop now, I’m all ears, what will you do to her tonight?” Makco looked really annoyed, and was about to reply harshly when he was interrupted by the sound of the door swung open and Penny entering the house.  
-”UGH I swear, sometimes I feel like strangling those two little…” Penny interrupted herself, eyes wide open in surprise at her sudden outburst, and the expression on the faces of her husband and her friend not less surprised than hers.  
-”Uhhh, having anger issues there, dear? Your hubby said he would soften you up later tonight in case you need to relax!”  
-”Shut up, Maru!” Makco yelled which caused Maru to snicker, then he went to hug his wife and to rub her back and her temples, and he could feel all her tension melting away and her breathing slowing down.  
-”Ok dear, I say you better take a hot, long bath, put on some comfy clothes, and read a nice book on your library. I’ll take care of the dinner, don’t worry.” Penny said nothing. She smiled and kissed his cheek then went to the bathroom. Maru turned to look at Makco, the surprise on her face didn’t vanished yet.  
-”Man, she’s scary when she’s angry, I hope I’m always on her good side.” Her facial expression returned back to normal then she took the empty glasses of milk she and the toddlers had and took them to the sink, then went back to sit on the couch again.  
-”It happens more often than you’d think. I suppose she allows herself to actually feel angry since she has someone she can be herself with. She is also deceptively strong for her size, she’s been able to pin me down no problem every time…” Makco covered his mouth to stop himself before he went into any details, and the devious grin on Maru’s face returned.  
-”Wipe that grin off your face, I don’t like that.” Makco narrowed his eyes and Maru nodded, running a hand across her lips and forcing her grin into a serious expression as if she did some magic trick and Makco raised a thumb in approval and continued to cook while a loud noise of a hair dryer came out from the couple’s bedroom and after a few minutes Penny joined her friend and her husband in the kitchen.  
-”Aww, Penny, my dear, you could buy yourself so many pretty clothes to look like a queen, yet it looks like you filled your wardrobe with yellow shirts and brown skirts.” Penny was, in fact, using her usual style of clothing with the yellow shirt and the brown skirt, though they were cleaner versions of the ones she had before bathing.  
-”Please Maru, I’ve tried pants before but it didn’t went very well. They didn’t quite looked how I expected.” Penny shook her head and walked to the table. Her husband was about to ask two to extend the expandable table to accommodate everyone but Penny took care of that already, the table now large enough for all the six people that were going to eat.  
-”Come on Penny, it is my opinion, and I’m pretty sure your hubby will agree with me here, that you looked smoking hot with those pants.” Penny blushed hard at her words, and even more when her husband nodded and said that he agreed with what Maru said.  
-”Oh, you two think so, huh? Maybe I should wear pants more often then since you two like them so much.” She grinned and closed her eyes and swayed her hips from side to side a few times, stopping when she heard her husband laughing.  
-”Hahaha Maru, get a bucket please, you’re drooling all over the floor!” Maru chuckled and ran the back of her hand on her mouth as if she were wiping drool off of it and grinned.  
-”That’s it, I’m marrying you two! I want a piece of that, I don’t want to be left out!” Maru stood up and went to the table to help Penny set it up with the plates and glasses and the silverware while Makco put the food he finished cooking on the table. When the food was finished being put on the table a knocking was heard on the door.  
-”That must be Sebastian. You go get it while I finish here, Maru.” Maru nodded and went to the door, opening it and letting her half-sibling in.  
-”Hello everyone.” Said Sebastian. He seemed to be on a good mood that afternoon because he was smiling, and his smile widened when he spotted the children that were looking at the stranger from the couch.  
-”Hello you two! You must be Leticia and Oliver, pleased to finally meet you.” Sebastian greeted the two children like they were adults, smiling at them and shaking their tiny hands.  
-”Hello Sebastian! Glad you could make it, and survived the sunlight! Please sit down, we’re almost ready.” Sebastian nodded and sat on one of the chairs and looked around, a bit amazed by the sheer amount of food Makco prepared for the occasion.  
-”Yes, it was a struggle. Uh, are you sure about this, I think you went overboard with the food, there’s enough to feed an army here.” Indeed, Makco went overboard with the food, there was enough to feed at least two times the the amount of adults present.  
-”Hehe, well, maybe. I just wanted to make a little bit of everything so everyone had something nice to eat! Well, sit down everybody, time to eat!” Makco announced and they all took their places at the table, Makco and Penny sitting side by side with the children at the sides in their tall chairs and on the other side Sebastian and Maru sitting side by side as well. They all were about to dig into the dinner when somebody outside knocked on the door.  
-”Who goes there?” Makco asked out loud while he got up to open the door with an annoyed expression on his face, his expression becoming even more annoyed when he say it was Abigail.  
-”Hey Makco! I saw Sebastian coming over here and I was really curious about this dinner of yours.” Makco grabbed her from her arm and pulled her inside the house before closing the door.   
-”Get in here, it’s not safe outside. I told you this was a private dinner and that I wasn’t throwing a party! Just… sit on the couch, I’ll give you dinner too.” Abby just stood there, looking down with a sad expression on her face.  
-”I’m sorry Makco, I didn’t wanted to interrupt. I better go, I don’t want to ruin your dinner. I’m sorry everybody.” Abigail looked at the people on the table. Sebastian looked annoyed and uncomfortable, Maru looked at her with a neutral expression, and the children looked at the purple haired woman curiously, they just met so many new people today. Penny offered Abby a reassuring smile, and even Makco was smiling at her when he came back for a plate for her.  
-”It’s not safe to leave alone now. Forget about the couch, take my spot on the table. And don’t hold back, I’m going to need a lot of help with all this food I made.” Makco walked closer to Abby and patted her shoulder and shook her a little, and the smile returned to her face.  
-”Come on now. No sadness allowed here.” She nodded and joined the others on the table, taking Makco’s spot at Penny’s side.  
-”You know, perhaps you should tell blondie out there it’s dangerous outside. She’s still there taking photos. I honestly don’t know what she’s doing in a farm with all the dirt and mud.”   
-"Wait, Haley is still outside? This is not good!" Makco ran to the door and opened it, looking out to see if he could spot her in the little sunlight available in the dusk.

 

A loud, high pitched scream and a call for help outside seemed to indicate that Haley was in trouble. Everybody at the table looked alarmed and Sebastian, Maru, Abby, and Penny all stood up and ran behind Makco to the door.  
-”Wait, stay inside everybody!” Makco ordered, and they all back went back inside while the farmer went to the chest that had his tools and he extracted fours swords.  
-”Sebastian, Abigail, you come with me. Penny and Maru, stay here with the children.” He gave a sword to Abby, Sebastian, and Penny, and kept one for himself. Both Sebastian and Abigail stood there looking at the swords they had in their hands. The purple blade of the swords looked like it had countless little stars inside them that shifted around each time they moved the swords.  
-”Woah Makco, this is some rad gear you have here, where did you get this babies?” Exclaimed Abigail, impressed with how lightweight the sword was and how powerful it looked.  
-”I’ve only heard of this on the internet, I’ve never believed they were real. The galaxy sword…” Sebastian’s eyes were also glued to the sword, though Makco’s voice snapped them back to reality.  
-”Come on you two, wake up and follow me! Cover my back while I go searching for Haley. Wear this!” He gave them one purple ring to each and they put them on, very curious about the rings too but knowing better than to keep Makco waiting. The three left the farmhouse while Maru and Penny stayed behind inside, waiting for them in the house.  
-”I know you two have experience fighting in the mines, but the monsters I have here at night are unlike anything you’ve faced before. Stay alert.” As soon as they met the darkness the area around Sebastian and Abigail became illuminated thanks to the rings they wore, and the surprise gave them pause which earned them to be yelled at by Makco again.   
-”Hurry up, we have people in danger here!” They focused on the task again and followed Makco into the darkness to where the calls for help came from. They didn’t found any monsters along the way until they reached Haley. She was surrounded but she was not alone. Apparently Leah also heard her screams and came to the farm running to help, and she hit any of the flying serpents that came too close with her mallet, and any of the serpents that came too close to Haley made her press the button of the camera, the flash of light blinding them and making them move back, hissing. They were a lot of them, and had the group from the farmhouse not arrived the weren’t probably going to survive the night.  
-”I have never seen such creatures, what are they?” Abigail asked, eyeing the hissing serpents and holding her sword in front of her, keeping close to Makco and Sebastian.  
-”They are just very angry, very fast flying serpents. Don’t keep your eyes off of them, and don’t let them surround you. We need to stick together and cover all angles. Luckily they can’t float too high so they won’t attack us from above.” The circle of serpents seemed to part as the small party tried to reach Leah and Haley, and as soon as they did they circled both of them to protect them while the circle of serpents closed again. They looked unusually aggressive tonight, probably because of the large amount of strangers in their land, and they started to come after the small group, fangs bare and hissing.  
-”Here they come! Strike quick and hard, they are very fragile.” The serpents lunged at the small group, and they swung their swords at them, hitting several right on the head. The hit serpents shrieked and vanished in a flash of fire and smoke but more took their place, hissing and launching themselves at the small group of people.  
-”Brace yourselves, here they come again!” The group swung their swords again at the group of serpents attacking them, but some of them managed to dodge the attacks and circled around to strike again, but they again were met by swords and were finished. Most of them at least.  
-”Ahhh! They bit me!” Yelled Abigail, dropping her sword to grasp her bitten forearm, trying to contain the blood coming out from the bite.  
-”Leah, take Abby’s sword and place! Abby, to the middle of the circle, let’s move out to the house!” Leah picked up Abby’s sword and took her place while Abby stayed in the middle of the circle with Haley.  
-”We almost got them, some of them are retreating already.” Informed Sebastian at the same time he swung his sword against one of the serpents that lunged forward, causing it to disintegrate in a flash of fire just like the others.  
-”Let’s go, this is our chance to go to the house, there’s an opening that way!” Yelled Leah and everyone started moving towards the house, with Makco covering behind them and hitting any serpent that tried to attack them until they were finally all gone and they could just take a deep breath of relief when they reached the farmhouse entered it, and closed the door behind them.

 

-”Maru please help Abby, she’s been bitten and she’s bleeding!” Asked Sebastian to his half-sibling, and Makco went to his tool chest to get a first aid kit and handed it to Maru.  
-”Come here Abby, let me wash your would in the sink and apply this bandages to you. First thing you do tomorrow is going to Dr. Harvey and get proper care of that wound.” Maru led Abigail to the sink and let the cool water run on her wound, and used the soap Penny handed it to wash any dirt off it, making Abigail flinch.  
-”Don’t worry, that’s the soap we use for our babies. It’s perfectly safe for wounds.” As Penny tried to reassure Abigail, Maru dressed her wound with the bandages tightly so no air or dirt would get in it. Afterwards she led her to the table so she would sit on a chair and sat down herself, and so did the rest, everyone taking a seat around the table, Maru and Penny grabbing a child each and making them sit on their lap so everyone would have a seat. Except Makco, he just stood close to the table, looking at everybody and then to the clock, that said it was near midnight.  
-”Heh, well, the dinner didn’t went as it was planned, and it’s way too late to leave this house safely. Enjoy, everyone have a bite, I made food for an army, and good thing I did!” Leah, Penny, and Maru smiled at him, and Haley and Abigail looked sad and said ‘Sorry’ very quietly. The only one that looked expressionless was Sebastian, but Makco knew by the spark in his eye that he had a lot of fun tonight.  
-”I have some phone calls to make. Emily, Robin, Pierre, they must all be curious why their relatives didn’t show up. Eat up, don’t wait for me, I’ll join you shortly.” Makco turned around and went to his room while the others gave him their thanks and started to eat hungrily. Except Penny, she went after her husband and hugged him from behind before he managed to make any phone call.  
-”Thank you for making all this possible, honey, and for bringing everyone back to safety. Even if it didn’t went as planned, I’m happy that we got so many people here safe and enjoying a meal made with love.” Makco took a deep breath, the tension of the last moments of the night melting in her embrace, and he turned around to face her and give her a long, sweet kiss.  
-”And I’m happy you had this idea, my dear. I hope Maru and Sebastian become a bit closer together, but even if they don’t I bet everyone is a bit closer to each other after tonight.”

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Catto and Soy from the Stardew Valley discord server for their help and support. You rock! <3


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